As an association leader, it’s safe to assume your number one goal (or close to it) is member acquisition and retention. Well, what if I told you we have information and innovation that can help you achieve that goal?

Last year, we sought out to determine how important continuing education and career advancement are to driving member value in our survey, “Member Education and Career Development Report.” Surveyed members believe “helping learn new skills” and “helping advance career” are the most important benefits provided by associations. This tells us that, for an association, offering ways to do both are critical in member retention.

Let’s go one step further. We also found 63 percent of members are interested in recommended learning paths, based on required job skills, with 75 percent saying they’re more likely to seek out continuing education if it’s connected to specific jobs they may be qualified for. Makes sense, right? So, it also makes sense to not only offer continuing education courses and a job board to your members, but to also integrate the two, so your members can see career advancement opportunities and how to get there.

63 percent of members are interested in recommended learning paths, based on required job skills

Integrating your learning management software (LMS) and career center is the best way to help your members advance in their careers. There are multiple ways to do this:

  • Offer courses directly on your career center homepage.
  • Highlight courses relevant to a user’s job search that will help him or her qualify for that position.
  • Display courses to users, based on their uploaded resume.

Providing your members with continuing education courses and job openings in one view will not only give them an unparalleled experience, but also increase your revenue by providing you with more learners.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at how Community Brands became the first association software solution to integrate an LMS with job board software.